subject: The Terror Of The Slaughterhouse [print this page] "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian." Paul and Linda McCartney
If every human being was forced towitness the heinous cruelty at the slaughterhouse andwas compelled to listen to the sounds of terror emanating from these death houses, the only meat eaters left would be those who were too much an animal themselves to even be called human.
I am sure there will be those who are horrified at such a statement but that is only because they have not been made aware of the terror that permeates the very walls of a slaughterhouse or they have steadfastly closed their eyes to the truth of the incomprehensible cruelty.
If you have the slightest care or concern forour animal friends then you cannot at the same time witness the cruelties of these houses of pain and torture and continue the practice of eating meat without a heavy burden of sadness. Therefore if you would boast of having a reasonable amount of empathy for the wonderfulanimalsthat share our planetand yet refuse to become informed, or worse, close your eyes tothese unimaginable abuses, thekindest thingthat could be said about you is that you are insincere.
Let us be clear however of what it is you are refusing to become informed about and alsowhat it is you are adamantly refusingto open your eyes and see. Of course if you already know or suspect the following explanation of atrocities in regards to the slaughter of animals andyet feel not theslightest compunction of guilt for the plight of these innocent, voiceless creatures, then certainly articles like this won't change your heart nor will the articles of far more capable writers who have gone before me. Your only hope would be to pay a visit to any slaughterhouse in America and see for yourself.
I am not going to waste your time or mine attempting to site thehour and place of each occurence of cruelty, because if you willmerely talk to a worker in a slaughterhouse, or a transporter of animalsto the slaughterhouse then you will have all of the proof you need. If however, you reject the following statements without even an attempt to confirm their veracity, then surely your irresponsibility is one of the reasons that slaughterhouses in their present form still exist.
THE TRANSPORT
Many times animals are herdedfrom a more rural area into the city where they are loaded onto transport trucks. These poor creatures whose bodies are already spent from a life of unimaginable cruelty and horrifying living conditions are made to run to the placewhere they will be transported to their death.The useof red chili powderadministered to the eyes is a well known method of getting them to run to their slaughter faster. There are beatings and torture all along this march to death and of coursethey take placeinall sorts of weather conditions, from sweltering heat to bitter cold. This is the horribleroad to the transport truck that will ultimately take them on their last ride.
Once placed in the truck they do not even have room to move. Fast stops and starts many times cause great injury to the animal asthey are knocked around the truckandoftenfallon each other breaking bones and suffocating. Again these transportsoften take place in extreme weather conditions and of course the animals are afforded no protection.
THE ARRIVAL
A sickening percentage of farm animals never makeitto the slaughterhouse alive. The ones that do are only half alive orworse. Many already have broken limbs before they are thrown like a sack of potatoes off the truck onto the pavement.Of course this will quite often break even more bones. These animals are not in any way considered sentient beings but merely a product, such as a bale of hay, and they are treated as such. The only difference is thatyou don't have to kill a bale of hay.
THE SLAUGHTER
The soundsof terror that assault you and then haunt you can soften the hearts of even thecruelest of men. Terrifiedpigs still fully conscious, squealing and kicking are often seenbeing lowered into a tank of scalding water. The unimaginable is commonplace each and every hourbehind slaughterhouse walls. Electric prods are used, castration, branding and docking of tails as well as de-horning which involves applying red hot irons tothecalves hornsfor a sustainedperiod in order to be able to rip them out of their head. De-beakingappliesscorching heat to the victimenabling their beaks to be ripped out. All of these attrocitiesof course are done without anesthetics. Ofttimes after stunning (although thismight immobalizetheyare still many times conscious and can feel every bit of pain)their throats are slit and they hang their to bleed out fully aware that they are bleeding to death or they are just left to lay in their ownblood and that of the slain that went before them as death slowly overtakes them. People who have worked in slaughterhouses will testify that many of these innocents are fully conscious during all of this. They are conscious and aware that they are hung by their leg upside down to bleed out and suffocate on their own blood. One worker said that "some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, and the hide puller. They die piece by piece." Others testify that many animals make it as far as the skinning process fully alive and conscious. They are skinned alive!
These and many more horrendous atrocities are just business as usual in the slaughterhouse.
In my estimation, the simplest solution to these horrendous practices is to quit eating meat. If you are a household of four, your decision to stop consuming intelligent animals could possibly save you around $1500.00 dollars or more per year.If you have struggled with your weight in the past, you will be pleasedathow quickly pounds of fat begin to drop off when you eat a healthy vegetarian diet. Your chance of suffering a heart attack will greatly diminish as well as your chancesofsuffering from cancer, stroke, diabetes, and other dread diseases. Your choice to forsakeeating meat will also pay great dividends in the health of our environment. Most importantly, you will be doing your part to spare a helpless animal from the terror and the cruel fate of the slaughterhouse
